A Visit to the Solid Shape Museum

Last week we wrapped up our geometry unit with our Solid Shape Museum.  This activity is a favorite of mine.
I often change activities from year to year.  I guess I'm always looking to see if some new approach might be better than another.  But, the Solid Shape Museum has been a keeper.
The Solid Shape Museum is fun for students, it gives them a chance to tie-in real world examples to our math, and it is a fabulous assessment tool.  It's a  win-win-win.
Not that, over the years, I haven't tweaked how we've done our Museum.  For example, this year I added some shapes, to the ones students had to bring to class.  I also changed the recording sheet students completed at the finale of the Museum.  But, by in large, the concept of the Solid Shape Museum has stayed consistent.

Here's how it works...
Students bring in "real world" objects that represent the 3D shapes we've been studying in class.  Some shapes are easier to find than others.  As you can see from the picture above, triangular pyramids and square pyramids were particularly challenging to find.  Which is fine.  Seeing the difference in the number of objects brought in led to an interesting class discussion.
Students take turns presenting their objects.  They tell what the object is and tell what shape it represents.  Then they place the object in the correct category in the Museum.

After all the presentations conclude.  Students complete a recording sheet by choosing one object for each shape to illustrate and label.
I told them they could pick any object they wanted to illustrate.  They didn't just have to illustrate their own objects.  That way, if a students didn't bring in items, they still could participate in this part of the activity.

If you would like a free copy of the parent note, recording sheet, and signs that I used for our Solid Shape Museum, click here.

Like I mentioned before, we do the Solid Shape Museum at the end of our geometry unit.  For the weeks leading up to the Museum, we are working hard to learn about 2D and 3D shapes.
Our geometry unit consists of read alouds, hands-on centers, and independent assignments.
As my students progress toward mastering these geometry skills, they truly benefit from having visuals, such as anchor charts and models, around the room.  (If you would like a free copy of the 3D shape mini anchor charts pictured below, you can click here.)

They also really benefit from having hands-on models of 3D shapes to complete tasks in class.  Students need to put that their hands on shapes to really understand faces, edges, and vertices on 3D shapes.

I bought a class set of 3D shapes from Oriental Trading.  There are enough shapes (240 pieces in all) in this set for each student to have each shape.  These shapes are a huge help when students are working with a partner or working independently on 3D shape tasks.
How else would students actually test if shapes can stack, slide, or roll?  Before I had a class set of shapes, I would use my teacher set to demonstrate stack, slide, or roll.  Now, students can do it on their own.  I love this set of shapes.  It was $20 well spent.

If you are looking for more ideas and activities to use in class for your study of geometry, you may way to check out my Shape By Shape {Hands-On Activities with 2D & 3D Shapes}.  This set of activities focuses on 2D and 3D shapes.  It includes, anchor charts, eight centers (with recording sheets), and a game of I Have. Who Has?  

For more details, you can click here or on the picture below.

Geometry can be a really fun unit in math.  Adding real world connections and hands-on experiences help students grasp these important concepts in a fun and engaging way.

Best.

You Better Shape Up: Activities for 2D and 3D Shapes (Including a FREE Set of Anchor Charts)

Shapes are everywhere and we have just about worn them out.  

Over the past couple of years I've noticed a gaping whole in my 2D and 3D shape resources.  I've needed some hands-on centers for our work with shapes.  For whatever reason, I didn't have time to put anything together, until a few months ago.  

I started working on 2D and 3D shapes centers for my young learners.  I wanted to be prepared when our geometry unit rolled around again.

Here's a peek at some of the centers we enjoyed this year...

One of the centers my students completed was a real world/shape match up.  As you can see, student matched real world photos with 2D shapes.  They wrote their findings on a recording sheet.  They also had to find their own examples of shapes in the real world to illustrate and label.

Students worked on naming the 2D shapes and matching up their properties.  Most of the 2D shapes were super simple for my firsties.  However, they certainly needed extra practice with trapezoid, rhombuses, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons.

After a recent pattern activity, I knew some of my young learners needed additional opportunities to work with patterns.  I put together two pattern centers (one with 2D shapes and one with 3D shapes). The pattern centers served as a great review for many of my students and an opportunity for some remediation for others.

Of course we needed some anchor charts to reference.  I love 2 Super Teachers colorful shape friends clip art.  These clips were perfect for creating a simple anchor chart display.

I also put together 3D shape mini anchor charts.  I printed a set of these anchor charts and used them to label our class set of 3D shape models.

I highly recommend getting a class set of 3D shape models.

 I bought my set at Oriental Trading several years ago.  I paid about $20 (or so).  They have been well worth the cost.  It is extremely helpful to students to be able to put their hands on 3D shapes as they learn about these shapes and their properties.

My students used these shape models with almost all of the 3D shape centers.  They used them with the 3D naming and property matching center.

They used the shape models with the stack, slide, or roll center.  Students really liked testing if a shape could stack, slide, or roll.

In addition to labeling our shape models with the mini anchor charts, I also printed a second copy for classroom display.  (If you scroll to the bottom, you'll find a link to a FREE set of these charts.)

All of these activities and many more are available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store in my Shape by Shape {Hands-On Activities with 2D and 3D Shapes} packet.  Altogether there are eight centers with recording sheets, two sets of anchor charts, and a game of I Have/How Has? for 2D & 3D shapes.

You can click on the picture below for more details.

Besides all of our classroom work with shapes, we also read some great shape themed books.  Here are just a few of my favorites...

Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes by Stuart J. Murphy, Shapes That Roll by Karen Nagel, If You Were a Polygon by Marcie Aboff, Perfect Square by Michael, Circus Shapes by Stuart J. Murphy, Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns, Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh, and If You Were a Quadrilateral by Molly Blaisdell.
For me, there's nothing like books to hook students' attention and spark their desire to learn more.

Finally, for a free copy of my 3D Shape Mini Anchor Charts.  You can click on the picture below.  If you teach 3D shapes, these colorful little posters make a great reference display and do not take up to much space.

Click on the picture below for your FREE copy of these anchor charts.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Best.

Fitting It All In Between Snow Days (Plus a Fun Math Freebie)

Thank goodness it's Friday.  I just made it through (I think) my first full week of school since December.  With all of our snow days January was totally choppy, which makes for teaching that feels a bit discombobulated.

I took down our January artwork to make room for some February goodies.  We made Valentine kids to hang up in the classroom.  They turned out pretty cute.  I really love projects that "look" like the kids.  Each student's personality always seems to shine through.

We also worked on a little post Groundhog Day activity.  I was disappointed to be out of school the the days leading up to Groundhog Day.  We missed our chance to do the groundhog prediction glyph that I like to use with my firsties.  

I thought for a few days how I could spin it and still take advantage of some of the fun Groundhog Day learning opportunities.  I decided to go with a simplified opinion writing craftivity, weather tracking to see if the groundhog's prediction comes true, and of course some groundhog themed read alouds.

I'm so glad it worked out.

Finally, we held our Solid Shape Museum.  Each year I have students bring in items from home that represent five solid shapes: cube, sphere, cylinder, rectangular prism, and cone.  

The students present their shapes and then place them in the museum.  We discuss the shape attributes and explore if they can roll, slide, or stack.  When all of the presentations are over, students complete a Solid Shape Museum mini book.

The kids really enjoy this project.  It is also a perfect way to make a real world connection to our math studies.

If you are interested in doing this project with your students, click on the picture below for a free copy of the mini book and a parent letter home explaining this project.

The clip art is from JW Illustrations, Scrappin Doodles, and Pink Cat Studio.

Well, I guess that's about it for now.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Best.

Solid Shape Museum (and a Math Mini Book Freebie)

Last week my firsties learned all about solid shapes.  Well, some of the solid shapes:  rectangular prism, cube, cylinder, sphere, and cone.  For math homework, they had to find items at home that are examples of each solid shapes.  On Friday students presented their findings in our shape museum.
The students loved listening to each other during these little presentations.  I loved watching them take a leadership role in class.
After all of the showing and viewing was complete, students worked on their shape museum mini book by illustrating the items they shared on the correct shape page.

You can have your own free copy of this mini book and a note to parents by clicking on the picture below.

The clip art is from JW illustrations, Scrappin Doodles, and Pink Cat Studio.

This activity is a great assessment tool.  When your darlings are up telling about their items and and related shapes, you will totally know if they have it or not.  

The pictures below show a few of the items brought in this year.  I loved the bullion cube.

This activity is simple to execute and pretty fun.  If you have any questions, please email me.

Have a great week.